The American Spectator : '47' -- What's in a Number?

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‘47’ — What’s in a Number?

By Paul Kengor on 9.20.12 @ 6:08AM

It’s the Obama media’s new favorite — but it should think again.

The newest pro-Obama, media-generated scandal is this Middle-East diversion of a story about Mitt Romney stating that “47 percent of the people … will vote for the president no matter what.” These are people who, said Romney, are “dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

The Obama media think this new magic number will help Obama. They hope it diverts our attention from the disaster in the Middle East, where Obama faces a Carter-like catastrophe. They hope it shifts our focus from genuine shockers, like the fact that Obama has missed a literal majority of his daily intelligence briefings, including all of them in the week leading up to the anniversary of 9/11 and the Middle East eruption. Our nation’s so-called “journalists” dig feverishly for something negative regarding their true enemy: Mitt Romney. They smell blood (or so they hope) in this “47 percent” thing. They sense a winning issue for the president who they strive not to cover with objective reporting but to shamelessly promote.

If I were they, however, I wouldn’t be so confident. You want to talk about “47”? I’ll give you a “47” that all of this comes back to: It’s the 47 million Americans who are on food stamps. That’s an astonishing number, truly unprecedented, and it strikes at the core of Mitt Romney’s message, and, more so, at what works to Romney’s advantage in this election — and to Obama’s disadvantage.

Newt Gingrich has used the phrase “food stamp president” to describe President Obama. He has done so for good reason. No other president has overseen such an upsurge in the number of Americans on food stamps. It’s a record — a dubious record of, yes, heightened dependency.

A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine was talking to a friend who owns several grocery stores. He was amazed when the owner told him about the level of distortion caused in his business by this food-stamp epidemic. For instance, there are currently so many customers on food stamps that store managers must carefully coordinate with suppliers and vendors to ensure there’s enough food in the store when food stamps flood in at the start of each month. In other words, the normal store estimates are so distorted that the store must make special plans to accommodate the food-stamp onslaught.

This also means that a much larger portion of the store’s revenues come not from cash in private hands but from government money collectivized and redistributed. This is money that has been transferred from one group of Americans to another. It’s what the late Hans Sennholz referred to as “the Transfer Society.” In his stores, said the owner, the volume of food stamps seems like it’s 10-20 times higher than just four or five years ago.

This is merely one segment of Americans who are currently depending on the government. We also have all of those depending on government for unemployment payments. And then there are those like Sandra Fluke, a new liberal superstar, dutifully demanding that government (i.e., taxpayers) pay for her contraception. Recall, too, the infamous “Julia,” the Obama administration poster girl for cradle-to-grave dependency.

Those are just a few examples. And guess what? The Obama media could care less. They have one interest: Obama’s re-election. Thus their focus on Mitt Romney’s “47 percent.”

Hey, that’s fine with me. This brings the presidential/political debate right where conservatives have wanted it all along: on the economy, on big government, and on Barack Obama’s redistributive state. You want to talk “47”? Bring it on. Let’s start with the 47 million on food stamps under President Obama.

About the Author

Paul Kengor is professor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. He is author of the new book The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor. His other books include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (112) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Aristocat| 9.20.12 @ 6:13AM

Have you been in line behind a food-stamp shopper with a cart full of things you can't afford to buy? Well, guess what, you're paying for their groceries and yours too, and many of them are illegal aliens.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 7:33AM

Instead of being glad you don't need to have Food Stamps, you are jealous? Disgusting.

Aristocat| 9.20.12 @ 7:57AM

Not jealous, resenful...Please go back to MoveOn website where you belong, Purpetrator

Slacker| 9.20.12 @ 12:04PM

If we actually paid for this redistribution it wouldn’t be quite so bad. But then government never fully pays for anything and the redistribution is really more debt for the next generation to swallow.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:37PM

No. What's MoveOn?

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:12PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 5:17PM

hahaha

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 7:06PM

You laugh about Ambassador Stevens's death.
Sicko.
You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:29PM

LMAO ...

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:18PM

You laugh about Ambassador Stevens's death.
Sicko.
You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp

JD| 9.20.12 @ 12:30PM

Purp, yours is the disgusting comment. In fact, disgusting seems like too mild a term.

If a person does more work than another person, but ends up with less for it (as many Americans do today thanks to redistribution), he has every right to be angry. You condemn him for being upset with injustice, suggesting that he should know his place with language akin to that which once justified slavery.

It's not about "needing foodstamps". Not in today's America:

http://www.zerohedge.com/artic.....family-mak

While liberals keep talking about relative "income", we wiser people know that people with lower incomes can have a lot more money to spend than people with higher incomes. In such a world, one is not automatically better off than someone who gets food stamps just because he doesn't qualify for them himself. Some people are poorer than those who get food stamps, but still don't get them. Such people know what it's like to live in a world of privileged classes and be the unprivileged. You despicable liberals pretend that you stand for the victims of such injustice, but you are actually the cause.

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 12:59PM

Without “redistribution” money will accumulate to a smaller and smaller group of people resulting in lesser and lesser economic activity. The problem we as a nation, the western world, is facing today is this accumulation of the wealth in too few hands. The time for massive redistribution has come!

JD| 9.20.12 @ 1:10PM

The rich get richer because foolish leaders think that making our system more complicated and getting government more involved will help the poor. It does the opposite. Complexity benefits the most capable and hurts the rest, and government meddling invites those with resources to meddle in government. We now have a government so involved in the economy that any business that DOESN'T play the lobbying game gets destroyed by those that do.

The fools that get government ever more involved in the economy refuse to entertain the notion that they are the problem, so they glibly blame others for the lobbying and the corruption that their policies make inevitable.

Get government out of the economy completely, and there will be nothing to lobby for. Simplify the tax code and regulatory framework dramatically, and the average American will be able to play the game as well as the exceptional guy.

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 4:30PM

“Get government out of the economy completely…” Without a government to regulate the disposal of radioactive waste Mr. Burns, a local business man, decides to store the waste from his nuclear power plant in the yards of houses he has purchased in your neighborhood. The more waste this business man stores in your neighborhood the cheaper the cost of storage becomes for him. His profits rise and your home equity falls. Who’s to stop him the market?

JD| 9.20.12 @ 6:39PM

Exposing my property to radiation would be a crime against me. As always, the liberal justifies regulation by conflating it with defense, law, and order.

The Avenger| 9.20.12 @ 2:20PM

Dumb as a brick, why am I not surprised? How about YOU take YOUR money and give it away. That is not the way liberals do it though, is it? No my friend liberals want to take MY money and give it away so they can feel good about themselves.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:46PM

Exactly - and that is what built the middle class - until Reagan began the destruction and "Trickle Up" to the rich.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:11PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 5:18PM

As if you care... hahaha

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 7:05PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:30PM

CJ - a LMAO

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:18PM

You laugh about Ambassador Stevens's death.
Sicko.
You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:45PM

False premise, idiot. There aren't an army of freeloaders on the public dole -- that's right wing mythology and you fall for it.

"We wiser people know that people with lower incomes can have a lot more money to spend than people with higher incomes. " - what kind of twisted logic is that?

Some people have more smarts than others - but that doesn't make one more important than the other - In your conservative utopia, it's "survival of the fittest", not survival of all. You love winners, even if you are not, but that doesn't make them any better, just better positioned to succeed.

Liberalism believes in leveling opportunity and providing an equal playing field.

Willard Romney did not play on that level field. His father paved a golden road to success for him that YOU will never have, no matter how much you vote for these plutocrats. You don't matter to them, and that is the 47% argument (hard working, retired, military and others) that Romney provided out of his own BIG mouth.

But you do matter to liberals. Even you. National security matters, education matters, fairness in the tax code matters. We all matter. Not so in the Rovian Romney Koch Bros cabal.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:06PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 5:18PM

You must be retarded ... one trick pony ... hahaha.

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 7:07PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

The Avenger| 9.20.12 @ 2:13PM

Once again purp you flaunt your ignorance by bastardizing what Aristocrat is talking about. I swear you can't see the trees for the forest.

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 7:07PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Oldefarte| 9.20.12 @ 7:54PM

http://youtu.be/oM8l3X_7Hkg

Oldefarte| 9.21.12 @ 10:21AM

Why would anyone be "jealous" WHEN THEY AS A TAXPAYER ARE ......PAYING FOR THOSE GD FOOD STAMPS????????????????

Cobalt| 9.20.12 @ 8:03AM

MY EBT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o64Fz-KW1Dk

Pecos Pete| 9.20.12 @ 8:27AM

Oscar!

Butch| 9.20.12 @ 2:01PM

"Studies say" that a principal cause of obesity is licking food stamps.

2Anglico| 9.20.12 @ 11:20AM

To Aristocat: After they pay for their food with OUR money, they pull out a wad of cash and have the cashier fetch them a couple of cartons of smokes! First hand observation.

RCV| 9.20.12 @ 12:19PM

I guess you checked their papers while in line, Aristocat, did you?

Alej| 9.20.12 @ 5:46PM

Yes, often, and the woman with five 1-year-apart babies got huffy when I remarked that if she would get a job instead of pumping out babies, maybe I wouldn't have to feed them.

In nature, when there's a drought and plant life withers, starving deer don't conceive. That's the way it ought to be with parasitic welfare types.

Alej| 9.20.12 @ 5:50PM

That was in reply to Aristocat's very first comment on this thread... why in hell is it placed here ?

JD| 9.20.12 @ 7:45PM

Babies feed parasitic welfare types by justifying increased welfare for them. For the parasitic welfare type to conceive is just as sensible as for the deer to not conceive.

Cats1cowboy| 9.20.12 @ 6:50AM

RE: "The Obama media could care less..." Actually, The Obama media cares so little that they couldn't care any less.

Appleby| 9.20.12 @ 7:07AM

When I lived in Buffalo in the 1980s, at the time the union-operated factories were closing down and moving South, many of us who were working minimum wage jobs through temporary agencies used to stand in line behind hugely fat Black women with two carts of groceries filled with things we could never afford, and after they paid with their food stamps they waddled out to their late-model cars and stood by while the clerks loaded their booty into the back seat (no room in the trunk). The rumbling was audible from those who were paying with pennies for a basket that was quite depleted. Soon after that I went to Atlanta, had 10 interviews in a week, got a job and moved South the next month. While I lived in Atlanta, a large fraud ring was busted that was run on the currency of Food Stamps, for which you could buy anything from a brand new (stolen) car to the services of a prostitute.

Pecos Pete| 9.20.12 @ 7:27AM

When your life is chips and dip, the couch and the TV in your gubmint home, all is well with the world. Oh, add in a little bit of smack and other fun things to help life feel even better. All paid for by the rich "folks" who caused the world's problem(s) in the first place. Gimme more and I will vote for you!

Martin kzovich| 9.20.12 @ 7:33AM

I believe that among the 47% there are those who do not want to be there. In my view Romney will actually be talking to them among all others. Do you want our economy to implode ? Do you want the US to be vulnerable --much more than under Bush ( who I could not stand BTW ) ? The TV screen with daily riots etc in the Middle East will reenforce the message. And the ideological divide has now been put in the debate and anyone who has a dream for their future beyond the dole will have more to consider. The Communists and their apologist in the Establishment Republican
will eat their words.

Von Mises Jr| 9.20.12 @ 8:31AM

This is the dilemma that Romney needs to explain. Grandma lost her Medicare Premiums paid in over a lifetime so Obama could redistribute health care to the poor and illegal aliens. Unemployment Insurance and Social Security disability Insurance are redistributing the taxes paid in by workers to phony, fakes and frauds that won't work. Pensions that redistributed property taxes to government union workers are about to implode nationwide.
So if you are retired or disabled and earned or need those benefit, you will be SOL when it all implodes.
So Grandma who gets her Social Security check and the disabled people actually get screwed if this continues. It is not if, but when.

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 4:56PM

… and the wealthy pay significantly less in federal taxes, only 13% in Romney case, then the working poor because the wealthy have convinced (ok, bought) the politicians to value capital over labor in tax law.

Alej| 9.20.12 @ 5:55PM

Romney-type taxes are capital gains, the capital of which waas purchased with AFTER-TAX dollars long before. It's basically DOUBLE TAXATION of the results of intelligent hard work, LABOR, as you put it, not the warlords riding roughshod through the serf's potato fields as you laughably imply.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 7:36AM

There's far more damaging comments by Romney than the 47% remark - like telling Iran how to terrorize the United States by planting a dirty bomb in Chicago and blackmailing the US, if he were Iran. Listen to the whole Romney Video:

http://www.motherjones.com/pol.....fundraiser

The Avenger| 9.20.12 @ 2:24PM

www. meffers.com.

Drunken Sailor| 9.20.12 @ 3:24PM

Hey dumbass. Then I guess someone should be made at The Council on Foreign Relations" as well seeing how they had articles on this back in 2006
http://www.cfr.org/weapons-of-.....ombs/p9548

Or how about the NRC putting out that info back in Feb 2011.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/.....bs-bg.html

You are a desperate idiot.

Obama could drink kool-aid, piss in a cup and you would call it holy water.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:51PM

Romney said it, he's running for President and wants to take the oath to "protect and defend" - and that is VERY different from your other documentation.

How do you protect and defend the US when you're willing to say in PUBLIC how to terrorize us? How stupid can he be.

His lack of charisma is one thing, but his lack of judgement is appalling. No thanks.

Don't bother giving me the "oh yeah, what about this .... " . His campaign is collapsing under the weight of his OWN MOUTH.

We should have a mercy election to relieve him of his misery and get it over with. It can only get worse for Mitt the Twit.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:07PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 5:19PM

LMAO

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 7:07PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:31PM

LOL

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:19PM

You laugh about Ambassador Stevens's death.
Sicko.
You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp

Drunken Sailor| 9.20.12 @ 5:34PM

OK genius. Seems you have become a one trick pony yourself with all the "Mitt's campaing is collapsing" BS. Please explain to me if Obama is so much better, has the media carrying his water, Bernanke floating his economy and idiots like you supporting him, shouldn't he be much, much farther ahead in the polls?

And you have to love Obama's latest gaffe. "You can't change washington from the inside." Guess he isn't trying to change it like he promised in 2008 anymore.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:32PM

MITT TODAY: 'HE SAID HE CAN'T CHANGE WASHINGTON FROM THE INSIDE... I CAN'

Mitt in 2007: 'I DON'T THINK YOU CAN CHANGE WASHINGTON FROM THE INSIDE'

Hahaha ... you people are CLUELESS about your own nominee..... LMAO - Losers.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 11:22PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death, Burp.
You are a disgusting scumbag.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 4:41PM

During the past week, Burp has REPEATEDLY blamed the late Ambassador Stevens for his own death, the death of 3 other Americans, and the attack on the Libyan consulate. He STUPIDLY believes that an ambassador has more power than the president.

Burp will say ANYTHING to help the Foodstamp President cover-up his incompetence.
__________________

Purp| 9.19.12 @ 8:06PM

"Who is in charge of the Embassy in a country? Who decides what is or isn't done in the Embassy?
"It is the Ambassador. He loved Libya, he miscalculated and tragically is dead.
"But, why would a President bother appointing an Ambassador if you're not going to listen to his advice. [...]
"Sadly, we can't ask the Ambassador himself - but that was his job."

__________________

Purp| 9.19.12 @ 10:49PM

"Say it all you want ... Ambassador is the boss. If he wanted more security, he'd have had it. It sure isn't the President's fault. [...] Twist all you want. He was the boss, and he is now dead."

__________________

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:51PM

You're an idiot - keep proving it. You provide nothing else.

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 6:52PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:33PM

ROFL .. you are just as clueless

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:19PM

You laugh about Ambassador Stevens's death.
Sicko.
You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp

Oldefarte| 9.20.12 @ 7:56PM

http://youtu.be/oM8l3X_7Hkg

Oldefarte| 9.21.12 @ 10:26AM

Why is "telling Iran how to terrorize the United States by planting a dirty bomb in Chicago..." so big a deal? Would you prefer someone that BOTH TELLS THEM AND SUPPLIES THOSE BOMBS like possibly we now have????????

Nina in MA| 9.20.12 @ 8:28AM

Much ado about nothing.....this is as stated nothing but a switch and bait to get people on track and not talking about all the trouble in the middle east. Shall we recount all the dispicable statements obama has made over the past four years? And yet ....crickets from the MSM....

JP| 9.20.12 @ 8:30AM

One wonders how much food inflation today is caused by the large federal subsidies via Foodstamps?

JD| 9.20.12 @ 3:54PM

No one wonders that. The Right knows the answer is "a lot", and the Left thinks the answer is "you're a racist for asking!"

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 8:34AM

Romney's campaign is collapsing. He's losing BIG even in the Fox Polls in VA, FL and OH.... buh-bye Mitt the Twit.

His whole world rests on the debates ... oh my.

Have a nice day!

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 4:22PM

ObamaboyPurpie, or is it PurpieWassermanSchulz?

Since you have so much free time, answer:

1. Michelle got a raise from$100,000 per year to $350,000 per year for her job as "Community Relations Attorney" from the Chicago hospital that got an earmark from Senator Obama. Could this be a variation of the kickback? I would have more respect for her is she just took the cash like Spiro.

2. How about the Obamas getting the house/land paid indirectly by the Chicago crook Tony Rezko?

3. How about your hero Bubba selling a pardon for one million to Denise Rich for her fugitive husband, Mark Rich? Eric Holder was involved in those pardons.

4. Obama missing 60% of the presidential daily briefings. You are not stupid enough to say he did not miss those meetings because those meetings did not occur because he failed to attend?

5. Obama not providing security to our embassies and consulate, and Ambassador Stevens get killed.
Stop blaming and defaming a dead patriot, Ambassador Stevens to lie for Obama.

6. Most of the muslim countries are rioting against us despite (or maybe because) the apologies and appeasement of Obama.

7. Even Baghdad Bob Carney and the Obama regime finally admitted these were planned terrorrist attacks, and not caused by some silly video.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:53PM

Interesting diversionary tactic - Romney's still losing - you can't top that.

Now what you want to do?

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:07PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 5:20PM

They have a cream for you...

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 6:52PM

PurpieWassermanSchulz

Answer the questions, idiot.
You can't, right?
Romney will win.
Obama is toast. Just like our embassies that he did not protect.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:34PM

LMAO ... 70% chance of Obama win ... and the Senate stays Democratic... Whoopsie ... guess they ain't buying what you're selling ... Giddy, giddy.

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:19PM

You laugh about Ambassador Stevens's death.
Sicko.
You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 5:14PM

Florida, Ohio, and Virginia hell if the polls hold Romney will be lucky if he wins Montana, Missouri and Indiana!

7-08| 9.20.12 @ 10:17AM

What part of 100 - 47 doesn't anyone understand?

Louis Jenkins| 9.20.12 @ 11:14AM

You already know the answer "7-08." But the answer doesn't matter, MSM, Chris Matthews, wants another tingle to run up and down his inner thigh. As for Purp, he wants the tingle to be a bit higher. If either wants a real tingle they should go urinate on an electric fence.

As for the 47%, the figure will be much higher next year after the election, unless Romney wins.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:54PM

51% of Americans get benefits - that's a majority - Romney is done.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:08PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 5:20PM

it's hard to be you ain't it... Romney is a LOSER.

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 6:53PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Mike G| 9.20.12 @ 11:26AM

"This brings the presidential/political debate right where conservatives have wanted it all along: on the economy, on big government, and on Barack Obama's redistributive state."

This would be true if the LSM were reporting Obama's "I actually favor redistribution" remark. As it is, they are burying it, so there is no contrast with what Mitt is saying. They have no idea what journalism really is.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:36PM

Riiiiggghtttt, blame the Media Monster.... Youtube, Twitter, Facebook (all anonymous, open and free) have no impact, right?

You think Americans are so stupid they can't make up their own minds - well they are and Mittens is going DOWN....

Slacker| 9.20.12 @ 12:10PM

Here is something to piss you off:

Back in my college days, when food stamps were actual stamps, I would buy them from a neighbor for 50% of face value. I was feeling good about my underground government stipend until she confessed why she didn’t need all her stamps; she got much of what she needed from a church food bank.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:37PM

Abusers come in all stripes - still doesn't mean you don't help those that can't help themselves.

Mother Teresa would NOT be proud of you.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 11:21PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death, Burp.
You are a disgusting scumbag.

JD| 9.20.12 @ 12:15PM

It was only a matter of time...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/20/.....hpt=hp_bn7

There is never a shortage of liberals willing to say "we do TOO pay taxes!" when confronted with not paying federal income taxes. Every aspect of their argument is ludicrous, but that doesn't stop them from repeating it.

First they say "We pay payroll taxes!" Oh, so NOW you want payroll taxes to be lumped in with other taxes? That's funny, when we talked about cutting Social Security or Medicare benefits, you insisted that we couldn't be cause you had "paid for them" with a special, separate tax that's part of the social contract, not a normal tax. Which is it?

Even with payroll taxes and all other forms of federal taxes included, 25% of Americans still pay net zero or negative. Many more pay very small positive amounts, and are among those who get far more out of Social Security than they pay in (as opposed to richer people who never get their money's worth).

Then they say "what about state and local taxes?" Wow, why don't you throw your rent in while you're at it? This is a discussion of federal policy and a person's impact on the federal deficit. State and local taxes aren't part of that. We know your real game - you're going to compare the sum of a poor person's federal, state, and local taxes to only the federal income taxes of a rich person, then draw the misleading conclusion that the poor person pays a lower "rate". Total apples to oranges!

JD| 9.20.12 @ 12:16PM

Liberals will keep playing this game, comparing the sum of a poor person's expenses to those of a rich person, suggesting that everyone should spend the same share of their income for life's (loosely defined) "necessities". This equates to complete socialism - everyone gets equal purchasing power as distributed by the government. Its flaws are numerous and obvious, but the Left will continue using it as rationale for its ideas, while denying that this is the goal when asked directly.

Finally, all of this talk of what a person pays or gets through the tax code ignores all of the federal expenditures that AREN'T in the tax code. If a person pays a net of $200/year in federal taxes, but receives $2,000/year in food stamps, which are essentially cash, is he really paying net federal taxes? Only in the mind of a liberal.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:56PM

As if any of YOU are rich people ... you are as foreign to their world as Romney is to yours ... and that's his problem, and YOURS.

You picked leader who can't lead you. So he just runs around in circles shooting at shiny objects. He can't stay on message, he's inarticulate (According to his VP running mate, Lyin' Ryan) and what he does say just digs his hole deeper and deeper.

Put him out of his misery and just concede the election to the President, before he totally ruins all Republicans with his BIG mouth.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:09PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

JD| 9.20.12 @ 5:36PM

I can't figure out how any of that is in any way a response to my post. At all.

Claiming that the rich live in some special world so unlike ours that we can't understand each other is just more liberal propaganda.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:47PM

Compassionate Capitalism (aka, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet) is not socialism. Corporatocracy is Fascism and that's what Romney believes in.

Romney believes in the Golden Rule - those with the gold make the rules. But that isn't America. And, THAT is why he fails.

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 1:04PM

Limiting the “upsurge in the number of Americans on food stamps” to a failing of Obama is to ignore the collapse of the middle-class which became during the Reagan administration.

JD| 9.20.12 @ 1:13PM

You are the one who ignores. You ignore a great many facts in search of a simple self-gratifying assignment of blame.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 4:57PM

Correct - GW Bush tripled the # of Food Stamp recipients - but this crowd didn't care then.

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 5:08PM

And conservative are ever so concerned about deficits … when there is a Democrat in the White House.

JD| 9.20.12 @ 5:34PM

If you had any honesty, you wouldn't have conveniently forgotten all the conservative concern about deficits that was voiced under Bush.

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 5:52PM

Voiced sure, but the Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and the White House for six years of the Bush presidency…two unpaid for tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, two unpaid for Wars, an unpaid for Medicare extensions…but willing to risk the nation over the debt ceiling because Obama was in office.

JD| 9.20.12 @ 6:36PM

Not true at all. Republicans never had close to a filibuster-proof majority, which is why only when they leaned left could the Bush Republicans get anything passed. Conservatives opposed that left leaning then, and oppose it now. You keep trying to make false allegations of hypocrisy, but your allegations require us to forget what we ourselves did.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:49PM

You don't need filibuster-proof passing tax legislation because majority is all that is needed - remember "RECONCILIATION"?

And no one will vote against the troops - well, until this Republican House does all the time.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:09PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

vtwin| 9.20.12 @ 5:24PM

Nick, try rebooting

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 5:30PM

Burp isn't worth anything more than ctrl-v, vtwin.

Did you read what he said about Ambassador Stevens?
Are you defending his contemptible statements?

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 7:51PM

I will take that as BIG, FAT NOOOO!, eh, vtwin?
(Man, you liberals really like to throw your fellow travelers under the bus, huh?)

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:49PM

LMAO ... quite an impact ... just like Governor Etch-a-Sketch ... ROFL.

Nick| 9.20.12 @ 11:20PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death, Burp.
You are a disgusting scumbag.

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 6:53PM

You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp.

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 9:50PM

hahahaha

CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:20PM

You laugh about Ambassador Stevens's death.
Sicko.
You KEEP blaming Ambassador Stevens for his own death.
You are a disgusting scumbag, Burp

Purp| 9.20.12 @ 11:21PM

I'm laughing at your lame efforts.... hahahaha.... retard.

Oldefarte| 9.20.12 @ 7:59PM

http://youtu.be/oM8l3X_7Hkg

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